- Hello, lovely people.
Did you know that half of all people
experience back pain each year,
and that 264 million work days
are lost each year due to back pain.
That's an American statistic
because the internet is Americentric.
That's a real word.
I'm surprised too.
Also surprising, back pain
is the single leading cause of disability.
Less surprising, many causes of back pain
remain undiagnosed.
Fortunately, I know what causes my back pain,
two 45 degree curves in the wrong direction of my back.
Unfortunately, that doesn't actually make it go away.
I've been dealing with back pain
since around 12 years of age.
And it's incredibly boring.
Honestly, after living enough days
with just feeling like someone is trying to
wrench off your shoulder blade with a hot poker,
I mean, it just becomes another trifle in your day.
That's a lie, I take medication to stop
the pain synapses in my brain from firing.
Apparently it also makes me feel drunk.
But I've been on it for 14 years now,
so I don't really remember sober life.
My medication takes the edge off my back pain,
but it doesn't actually remove it.
So I've tried various non-drug treatments
through the years, as well,
including physiotherapy, aqua-aerobics,
and seeing osteopaths and a chiropractor.
I also sat through an hour of a woman
explaining how she could cure my scoliosis
with a tonic made from ground rose seeds,
which, I mean, would have made her a witch
if it worked for me.
And I didn't stick around to try out her potion
because I know better than to mess with the occult.
I've watched enough "Buffy the Vampire Slayer",
I know that magic needs to be balanced,
and I wasn't willing to see what straight thing
would have to be bent to make up for it.
At least my sexuality was safe.
Okay, that was awful.
But come on, I couldn't let that one go.
At the same time, I'm also a big fan of vintage fashion.
And I spent a lot of time being annoyed
at the fact that you really do need the right
period appropriate undergarments to make your look.
But it just isn't possible for me to buy a nice corset
off the rack because, hello,
please enjoy these close-ups of my body.
Clutch those pearls, this is the most exposed
I've ever been on the internet.
Hi, here's a brief explainer about my scoliosis.
So I have two 45 degree curves.
At the very top it goes to the right,
and at the bottom it goes to the left.
And what this means is that my ribcage
also goes different ways.
So at the very top here it goes this way.
And at the bottom further down
it sort of slights to turn out this way.
And there's a lot of muscle in the lower back here.
And then the upper back here.
As you can see, my shoulders are not the same height.
This feels to me like I'm standing straight,
but I mean, you can tell, apparently I'm not.
Also here, there's a bit of a curve out
and it goes into my waist.
And this side is much flatter.
The different heights of my waist you can see here and here.
On this side, as you see, my waist goes in,
and curves in to this little waist, comes out again.
The other side, ah, not so much.
Look at this, this is my little hump.
Which if we look from the other side,
you can see here goes straight down.
This does unfortunately mean that
when I'm wearing nice dresses,
I have to twizzle them around,
zip them off on one side, and then twizzle them back.
It's a whole thing, and it's really, really annoying.
Other annoying things include, my rib cage.
Pretty flat, pretty lined.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's good.
Can wear regular underwear with that.
And then duh, duh, duh, duh, this, this thing.
That's just my rib trying to break away.
He's off, he's done with me, he doesn't like me anymore.
Unfortunately, when you wear underwires,
they tend to just try and cut through this rib.
Another thing you might notice, is with my shoulders.
So I have, on this side here,
what's called a winged scapula,
which means that my shoulder blade,
as you can see, it comes in.
That's not me having bad posture, that's just what it does.
It's perfectly straight, pretty painful.
That's the worst thing about scoliosis really.
It's annoying, it makes some of my dresses look a bit funny,
but it really, really hurts.
And that's just rude.
I said most exposed, but then I remembered this.
Yes, I was on a reality TV modeling show in the late 2000s.
And I promise I will one day make a video about it.
It was one of the worst experiences of my life,
so I need you to promise you'll be really kind,
before I can work up the courage, thanks.
An orthopedic corset was something
that I really, really wanted as a teenager
because I read that it would reduce my pain.
And no one had given me the good painkillers yet.
It's the NHS, so I'm sure
it would have been beige and hideous,
but that sweet, sweet pain relief
just sounded like a really good thing.
They decided not to give me one though
because I'm hypermobile, and my body moves a lot,
and I guess they were just hoping
I would grow out of having a bent spine.
They were hoping I would grow out of
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" too, but nope.
However, I'm an adult now.
So I thought, why not kill two birds with one stone
and get a custom corset made?
That would not only help my backache,
but also to make my vintage dresses look really pretty.
And that's where the amazing Catherine
of Kiss me Deadly comes in.
(jazzy music)
Well, hi.
So today is the 8th of November and we are, hey Stevie.
- Hi.
- We are very excitedly driving to London
where I'm gonna have my very first fitting
for a custom corset.
- Ooh.
- Wee-oo!
- Thank you for the slow reactions there.
Beautiful.
They're very excited too, obviously.
Not really.
- I'm excited for you.
- I'm excited because hopefully I'll finally
have a bit of underwear that fits my body,
because underwear and scoliosis, it's a hard match.
(jazzy music)
So we have come to Fairy GothMother,
which is the UK's premier retro bridal.
It's a place with lots of white, very big, fluffy dresses.
And some of them are incredibly sparkly.
So I'm very excited.
(jazzy music)
And we're actually here to meet Catherine.
Hello. - Hello.
- Who I first met 10 years ago.
- You did.
I didn't actually think you'd remember.
- Oh, why?
- It was so long ago, and it was a very long day.
And as I recall, my only job
was putting hosiery onto models that day.
- That's true,
- Which, it was a weird day.
It's a long story.
- But then we made Facebook friends.
- We did.
- And then I've just followed everything
you've done on Facebook since then.
I love it.
Support your disabled, small business owners.
So we're gonna make me a corset today.
- We are, and it's gonna be a different corset to you.
- Not literally today. - Yes.
So, actually sewing a corset can take
anything from four to 120 hours,
depending on how complicated you want to make it.
We do a range of standardized corsets
that take us about half a day to a day to make.
But Jessica needs something different
because she needs something that's
customized to her particular issues,
which means I will not be sewing it.
- It's an interesting shape, my body.
So, it's gonna be fun.
- The difference between a ready to wear corset
and a custom corset is with ready to wear
you would order a standardized product
and we would just make it and send it.
But for a custom corset,
what we will do is we'll take these measurements away.
We're gonna develop a pattern just for you.
We're gonna make a toile, saying we, it's just Lou.
She will make a toile, which is like a very simple,
like one layer version of it
with the steel bones, everything.
Then we post it to you.
And we get you to either video or photo,
and then also put pins in it anywhere there's a problem,
like if it's gaping, or it's hurting, or anything like that.
And then Lou tweaks the pattern
and then makes the final corset based on that fitting.
So it is very like traditional, kind of serious,
tailoring corsetry, all of that stuff.
That is why it's expensive
because it's a lot of time that goes into it.
Okay, this time don't forget that your body changes
as you get older, so you can't just keep
doing the same thing again, and again, and again.
(Catherine laughs)
- [Jessica] Sure.
(jazzy music)
- Basically, you do belong in the era
where everyone had clothes made to measure.
- That's what I've been saying all along.
I have been fully measured, very excitingly
something will come in the post to me.
But I should say, thank you so much, guys.
I'm very excited to see the end product.
- We're really pleased to be working with you.
And it's a really interesting product,
like in terms of kind of the illness issues and everything,
for us as well.
So, thank you very much.
- Go and make sure you check out the Kiss me Deadly website
for all of the beautiful things that you do
that aren't just custom.
- So we sell retro inspired and vintage inspired lingerie,
and we also sell other independent lingerie brands
that meet niche needs like fuller bust or plus-size.
- Go.
But wait, I hear you ask, aren't corsets
meant to be really, really bad for you?
Don't they squish your organs,
and break your ribs, and make you faint?
Aren't they also the least feminist thing ever?
No, no, I'm sorry.
You've been lied to.
Women did actually do things
before the current era whilst wearing corsets.
And I'm not just talking about aristocratic women.
Corsets were worn daily doing heavy lifting,
or working on a farm,
or just living life with nine children,
because that's what happened in the past, right?
Everyone just had nine children.
Fun fact, men also wore corsets.
We tend to think of corsets as being something
only used to drastically change the shape of a woman's body,
but that's not what the majority of corsets
were historically worn for.
The tension of the garments
wasn't just focused around the midsection,
which puts pressure on those muscles,
but across the entire garment.
They were all custom made to the wearer's body
and designed to fit her shape,
rather than give her a new one.
They were also great for your boobs.
And I don't just mean creating a nice cleavage,
though, thanks every historical drama ever.
What did we wear before bras were invented?
Corsets.
For those of us who have boobs that are on the large side,
I don't mean like minor 30E or 30DD,
depending on the make.
Put the European equivalent on screen now
because I don't actually know
what that translates to in centimeters.
Voila.
I guess makes my breasts small on the large scale.
But this video isn't about my breasts.
And also I need to stop saying the word breasts
or else I'm going to get this video demonetized.
It might be too late.
So if your mounds of joy are on the larger side,
you're probably no stranger to shoulder pain,
and the feeling of straps cutting into those shoulders.
Uh, you know what would help with that?
A corset.
Corsets were designed to distribute the weight
of your melon lights across your back.
Now, poor women wore corsets not only
for the very practical reasons,
but also to show that they were
responsible members of society
who were well put together and capable.
Yes, because apparently if you don't wear a corset,
you're immoral.
I'm totally kidding.
Please, don't take me seriously.
I'm very sorry.
For a modern equivalent,
think of it like wearing shoes in public now.
Please do it, protect yourself.
So yes, corsets provided support for your peach orbs,
but they also helped carry the weight of a heavy petticoat,
which considering the many layers of padding and fabric
worn under historical dresses, was needed.
Yet, the comfort of a corset is not something
we hear about in mainstream media,
particularly from actresses in period dramas
who complain about not being able to breathe or move.
I mean, you've seen portraits of ladies fainting,
or have read books in which they were
tight-laced by their maid
and then could barely make it two steps before swooning.
Have you ever noticed that they were made by men?
Mostly after the time of corset wearing.
Women who wore corsets daily and also wrote books,
barely mentioned them because, shocker,
they were just part of daily life,
and therefore not that notable.
In our current era, the majority of people wear bras.
But if I were to write a book
and describe what my heroine was wearing,
probably wouldn't go,
she was wearing a red dress in a shade of crimson
that perfectly matched her shoes.
A gold box bag was clutched in her ungloved hand,
as the other tugged at her simple chain necklace.
Oh yeah, and she was wearing a bra.
Karolina Zebrowska has a really great video about this
called "How Victorian Men Taught Us to Hate Corsets:
The Biggest Lie in Fashion History."
Which I'm going to link in a card above.
It delves more into why our perceptions of corsets
have been thrown off.
When I was first diagnosed with having scoliosis,
diagnosed seems like such a strange word there.
I mean, you can see it.
I don't really need a doctor to tell me my spine is curved.
No doctor said, you can wear this corset to ease your pain,
but I should warn you that your liver
will likely be chopped in half.
Actual thing Victorian men said about corsets.
But don't take it from me,
take it from someone who lived
for many years in an orthopedic corset, Bernadette Banner,
who is a fashion historian with a scoliosis.
You can watch her video on corsets and scoliosis here.
And, as she explains, corsets are back pain relievers.
Yet, in the second half of the 19th century,
doctors began to claim that corsets
could lead to such things as tuberculosis, cancer,
and your liver being cut in half.
Which, isn't really born out by the statistics,
because if almost all European women were wearing corsets
and the side effects were that severe,
how do we still exist as a population?
No seriously, for millennium women wore corsets,
and yet still managed to stay alive and have babies.
Sometimes nine of them.
Admittedly, a lot of those babies died,
but we can blame that on disease
and an inability to wash one's hands.
Topical.
But women's fashion has always been ridiculed
as pure trifling vanity.
After all, if a woman's only way of expressing themselves
was through their clothes,
then of course it was going to be looked down upon.
It's no coincidence that at the time of
the rise of the women's rights movement,
there was also a rise in men ridiculing women's corsets,
which were mainly made and designed
by female owned businesses.
Now it is true that wearing a corset every single day
from childhood does have an effect
on your internal organs and muscles,
but that's how humans work.
Also pregnancy smooshes your organs around too,
but no one is trying to cancel babies.
Okay, are you ready for the final reveal
of my beautiful corset?
Whilst my corset doesn't have as many parts
as an old-fashioned Victorian one,
it certainly supports my back and helps to relieve my pain.
Because it has a cross body tension
it allows my overworking back muscles to relax a bit
and does their job of supporting my twisty body.
Sometimes I feel like my body might just collapse
at the right, on my waist,
because it is so strong on my left
that it hasn't built any security,
but the corset really helps with that.
It's also very beautiful
and makes the line of my dresses look good,
which my vanity appreciates.
Corsets, by the way, were never worn on bare skin,
there was always a protective layer.
I just wanted to give you an unobstructed view of it.
So don't worry, I will wear something underneath.
Let's see how my corset changes the look of my dresses.
(jazzy music)
So, why do modern actresses complain about
how uncomfortable corsets are?
Because corset making is a complicated process
and it takes a lot of time and fitting.
It needs to fit perfectly, with multiple fittings,
and a process of breaking in a corset,
wearing it for small amounts of time daily.
Much like you need to break in shoes.
The most comfortable ones are the ones you've worn the most.
It's unlikely that the corsets
are custom made for the actresses
and that they've been given enough time to break in.
So...
So there we have it.
Expect to see me wearing my lovely corset,
feeling much better about my backache, from now on.
Thank you again to Catherine and Lou
for helping me to make this possible.
It's such a wonderful gift
and I really, really appreciate it.
Thank you very much.
And thank you for watching.
Remember to subscribe, if you haven't already.
You can also click the join button
to become a member of the Kellgren-Fozard Club,
where you get access to monthly behind the scenes videos,
and a downloadable bundle,
and our own area of the Discord board.
Oh, so many goodies.
Thank you again for watching.
And I will see you in my next video.
(dynamic music)